250k iPhones in Ireland according to ad group

There are an estimated 250,000 iPhones in Ireland at the moment, according to Digital Reach Group (DRG). The numbers are based on traffic statistics from DRG’s advertising network and comes before Vodafone Ireland has officially launched the handset to its customers.

According to the figures 35% of iPhone users are on the O2 network, which had exclusivity on the Apple device for two years. 10% of users are already with Vodafone despite its official launch not happening until tomorrow; this figure may include users who got pre-release offers or customers who unlocked and switched their iPhones from O2.

The majority of iPhone users tracked, however, were using WiFi to connect to the web.

DSG provides an advertising platform under the name Adforce to a number of websites popular in Ireland, such as RTE.ie and Bebo. As a result it can monitor usage patterns and user information to see where people are coming from and what kind of device they use. It says that the scale of its operations allows it to accurately calculate the number of handsets on the market at the moment.

According to the company the iPhone is the single most popular handset for web-browsing and traffic coming from it is constant through-out the day, unlike others where there are peaks and troughs of usage. The research suggests that Nokia is the most popular handset manufacturer, however, followed by Sony Ericsson, Research In Motion, Samsung and then Apple.

While Google’s Android operating system has only been officially available in Ireland in recent months it too has been picked up in the research. It currently makes up 0.5% of mobile web traffic in the country.